Magic Deck Vortex Blog

Today, won’t be as tongue in cheek as our last Getting Classy where we got down with the misfit rogues.  It’s time to get out with the hurly burly bunch known as the Warrior class.  Warriors by definition are anyone that engage in warfare, but Warriors don’t believe in dictionaries and tend to define themselves based on their attitude.  Warriors with no regard to anything but death are more akin to being a Berserker, while those who are disciplined and fight along others tend to be Soldiers.  Heck, you can’t even pin a Warrior down to being people paid to fight as they are Mercenaries.  There’s even disciplined Warriors who are Monks and savage ones who are Barbarians.  In truth, the concept of a Warrior in Magic is a powerful creature who through brute strength alone can take on an entire army.  They are the brawn lone fighters who know no allegiance but to combat.

So what would I say is the Ultimate Warrior?  Well that’s up for debate, but we’re talking about a creature who for his or her casting cost is larger than his peers and can dominate in pure combat prowess.  Due to this kind of nature, our two colors of choice seem to almost instinctively become Red and Green.  White tends to be brotherly favoring ordered combat, while Black tends to be favor troops who fight for an evil cause, and yes a good amount Warriors do fight for evil.  Blue is out of the question, it’s all mental for them, no push.  In the end, Green and Red hold their own as the primary home for Warriors for various reasons.  Green’s stalwart resolve to stand alone and Red’s pure love of all things melee make perfect marriage for Warriors.

The Warrior Tribe at Glance
There are 219 Warrior Cards. 218 Creatures, 1 Artifact.
Warriors first appeared in Alpha.

General Warrior Themes:
- Efficient Power/Toughness
- Combat Evasion (Landwalk, Fear)

Top 10 Warriors

1. Goblin Piledriver
2. Eladamri, Lord of Leaves
3. Countryside Crusher
4. Korlash, Heir to Blackblade
5. Mirri, Cat Warrior
6. Daakon Blackblade
7. Bramblewood Paragon
8. Brion Stoutarm
9. Timber Protector
10. Elvish Warrior

Warriors are a tricky tribe.  For the most part their straightforward efficiency often speaks more than a powerful ability.  They fair very well in Standard and Drafts for their power, but lose out to niche killers when it comes to the larger formats like Extended, Classic, and Legacy.  Goblin Piledriver has long driven the Goblin tribe to the tournament level and Elvish Warrior even though a vanilla 2/3, often makes its way into deck lists for it’s low cost, all though Tammie has knocked him out recently for a two drop aggro.

Generally speaking, Warriors will either be in a tribal themed deck or make their way into Zoo or basic Red-Green Aggro decks where their efficient body makes them a welcome addition.  One Warrior in particular has almost everyone involved in a debate about it’s impact on the game - Countryside Crusher.  At a first glance it seems horrid.  I mean you can never feasibly draw a land while it’s in play, holding you to quite possibly three mana.  However, it’s implications as a speed-growth reverse-Kudzu or the fact that it matches perfectly to Seismic-Loam leave many speculating that it may evolve a new power deck.  We’re not talking a Flash incident here, but I imagine Seismic-Loam may end up getting some additional tournament time.

However, the deck today won’t feature him.  I’m not going to jump into the myriad of decks involving him, I’m instead going to focus on a a powerful Standard deck that can tear thru the crowds of Goblins, Mannequins, and what not.  The deck will take the tradition of Elf and ramp it up.  We’re not talking mass 1/1’s we’re going to create an Elf Warrior army of capable creatures who wouldn’t dare be caught frolicing in a forest.

Elven Rampage - Tribal Elf Warrior Standard
Lands (24)
13x Forest
4x Llanowar Reborn
4x Mutavault
2x Mosswort Bridge
1x Pendelhaven

Creatures  (26)
4x Bramblewood Paragon
4x Elvish Harbinger
4x Imperious Perfect
4x Llanowar Elves
4x Wren’s Run Vanquisher
2x Lys Alana Huntmaster

Spells (10)
4x Harmonize
3x Obsidian Battle-Axe
3x Stonewood Invocation

I hope I don’t have to do too much explaining here, as I thought the deck speaks for itself.  It’s a fairly cheap and easy to make mono-green deck that features mass growth and fast play.  Several Elves build on each other, while all are fast casts.  Obsidian Battle-Axe ensures you’re swinging fast and powerful to overcome seemingly faster aggro decks.   Most control decks will struggle with the counters and pure speed it plays.  The verdict: Rampage.

An ideal hand might play out like:
Turn 1: cast Llanover Elves
Turn 2: cast Obsidian Battle-Axe
Turn 3: cast Imperious Perfect, create a token thanks to haste, swing for 4 with the Token!
Turn 4: cast create another Token swing for 7 and Stonewood Invocate for another 5.

That’s a good hand mind you, but look at it, a good hand uninterrupted has your opponent down to 4 life on Turn 4!  You don’t even need those cards, the Wren’s Run Vanquisher or Bramblewood Paragon swings for almost as much.  The rest of the cards in your deck that aren’t swingers keep up the pace so much that even control decks will suffer.  Also, Elf tokens from Lorwyn-Moringtide are Elf Warriors  which makes them all the sexier.

 Any questions?  Take it to thread where I’ll defend my Elven Warriors to the death!

This entry was posted on Monday, February 4th, 2008 at 12:22 pm and is filed under Casual Deck Strategy, Magic General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.